Eli the Good

In his YA debut, a best-selling novelist revisits a summer of tumult and truth for a young narrator and his war-torn family.

For ten-year-old Eli Book, the summer of 1976 is the one that threatened to tear his family apart. There is his distant mother; his traumatized Vietnam vet dad; his wild sister; his former war protester aunt; and his tough yet troubled best friend, Edie, the only person with whom he can be himself. As tempers flare and his father’s nightmares rage, Eli cannot escape the current of conflict. From Silas House comes a tender look at the complexities of childhood and the realities of war — a novel filled with nostalgic detail and a powerful sense of place.The story flows along as steadily as a stream, carrying readers and Eli to the end of summer and beyond, into a coda where he is an adult. Eli is good company and children will enjoy accompanying him on his journey.
—School Library Journal (starred review)